Dear Editor,

I read Arielle’s article hoping to find an answer to the issue of what to think about foreign language speaking residents. No luck; you’re as much up in the air as I am.

I can point out that if you go to Canada you’d find that most Canadians can speak French or English with equal facility and if you talk to a waitperson anywhere in Europe you’d find that they can converse in several languages. I don’t think the national identity is threatened in either case.

My solution to the problem was to marry a person who is fluent in the language I needed, French in this case, and I just follow her around in France with no problem!

From: tblack@eastoninvestment.com

(For Arielle’s article please see the paper published on 5/23/2006 Editorial’s page article titled Immigrants battling language)